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_ Among the directors of the North Chicago City company there was
one man, Edwin L. Kaffrath, who was young and of a forward-looking
temperament. His father, a former heavy stockholder of this
company, had recently died and left all his holdings and practically
his directorship to his only son. Young Kaffrath was by no means
a practical street-railway man, though he fancied he could do very
well at it if given a chance. He was the holder of nearly eight
hundred of the five thousand shares of stock; but the rest of it
was so divided that he could only exercise a minor influence.
Nevertheless, from the day of his entrance into the company--which
was months before Cowperwood began seriously to think over the
situation--he had been strong for improvements--extensions, more
franchises, better cars, better horses, stoves in the cars in
winter, and the like, all of which suggestions sounded to his
fellow-directors like mere manifestations of the reckless impetuosity
of youth, and were almost uniformly opposed.
"What's the matter with them cars?" asked Albert Thorsen, one of
the elder directors, at one of the meetings at which Kaffrath was
present and offering his usual protest. "I don't see anything the
matter with 'em. I ride in em."
Thorsen was a heavy, dusty, tobacco-bestrewn individual of sixty-six,
who was a little dull but genial. He was in the paint business,
and always wore a very light steel-gray suit much crinkled in the
seat and arms.
"Perhaps that's what's the matter with them, Albert," chirped up
Solon Kaempfaert, one of his cronies on the board.
The sally drew a laugh.
"Oh, I don't know. I see the rest of you on board often enough."
"Why, I tell you what's the matter with them," replied Kaffrath.
"They're dirty, and they're flimsy, and the windows rattle so you
can't hear yourself think. The track is no good, and the filthy
straw we keep in them in winter is enough to make a person sick.
We don't keep the track in good repair. I don't wonder people
complain. I'd complain myself."
"Oh, I don't think things are as bad as all that," put in Onias
C. Skinner, the president, who had a face which with its very
short side-whiskers was as bland as a Chinese god. He was sixty-eight
years of age. "They're not the best cars in the world, but they're
good cars. They need painting and varnishing pretty badly, some
of them, but outside of that there's many a good year's wear in
them yet. I'd be very glad if we could put in new rolling-stock,
but the item of expense will be considerable. It's these extensions
that we have to keep building and the long hauls for five cents
which eat up the profits." The so-called "long hauls" were only
two or three miles at the outside, but they seemed long to Mr.
Skinner.
"Well, look at the South Side," persisted Kaffrath. "I don't know
what you people are thinking of. Here's a cable system introduced
in Philadelphia. There's another in San Francisco. Some one has
invented a car, as I understand it, that's going to run by
electricity, and here we are running cars--barns, I call them--with
straw in them. Good Lord, I should think it was about time that
some of us took a tumble to ourselves!"
"Oh, I don't know," commented Mr. Skinner. "It seems to me we
have done pretty well by the North Side. We have done a good
deal."
Directors Solon Kaempfaert, Albert Thorsen, Isaac White, Anthony
Ewer, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, being solemn gentlemen
all, merely sat and stared.
The vigorous Kaffrath was not to be so easily repressed, however.
He repeated his complaints on other occasions. The fact that
there was also considerable complaint in the newspapers from time
to time in regard to this same North Side service pleased him in
a way. Perhaps this would be the proverbial fire under the terrapin
which would cause it to move along.
By this time, owing to Cowperwood's understanding with McKenty,
all possibility of the North Side company's securing additional
franchises for unoccupied streets, or even the use of the La Salle
Street tunnel, had ended. Kaffrath did not know this. Neither
did the directors or officers of the company, but it was true.
In addition, McKenty, through the aldermen, who were at his beck
and call on the North Side, was beginning to stir up additional
murmurs and complaints in order to discredit the present management.
There was a great to-do in council over a motion on the part of
somebody to compel the North Side company to throw out its old
cars and lay better and heavier tracks. Curiously, this did not
apply so much to the West and South Sides, which were in the same
condition. The rank and file of the city, ignorant of the tricks
which were constantly being employed in politics to effect one end
or another, were greatly cheered by this so-called "public uprising."
They little knew the pawns they were in the game, or how little
sincerity constituted the primal impulse.
Quite by accident, apparently, one day Addison, thinking of the
different men in the North Side company who might be of service
to Cowperwood, and having finally picked young Kaffrath as the
ideal agent, introduced himself to the latter at the Union League.
"That's a pretty heavy load of expense that's staring you North
and West Side street-railway people in the face," he took occasion
to observe.
"How's that?" asked Kaffrath, curiously, anxious to hear anything
which concerned the development of the business.
"Well, unless I'm greatly mistaken, you, all of you, are going to
be put to the expense of doing over your lines completely in a
very little while--so I hear--introducing this new motor or cable
system that they are getting on the South Side." Addison wanted
to convey the impression that the city council or public sentiment
or something was going to force the North Chicago company to indulge
in this great and expensive series of improvements.
Kaffrath pricked up his ears. What was the city Council going to
do? He wanted to know all about it. They discussed the whole
situation--the nature of the cable-conduits, the cost of the
power-houses, the need of new rails, and the necessity of heavier
bridges, or some other means of getting over or under the river.
Addison took very good care to point out that the Chicago City or
South Side Railway was in a much more fortunate position than
either of the other two by reason of its freedom from the
river-crossing problem. Then he again commiserated the North Side
company on its rather difficult position. "Your company will have
a very great deal to do, I fancy," he reiterated.
Kaffrath was duly impressed and appropriately depressed, for his
eight hundred shares would be depressed in value by the necessity
of heavy expenditures for tunnels and other improvements.
Nevertheless, there was some consolation in the thought that such
betterment, as Addison now described, would in the long run make
the lines more profitable. But in the mean time there might be
rough sailing. The old directors ought to act soon now, he thought.
With the South Side company being done over, they would have to
follow suit. But would they? How could he get them to see that,
even though it were necessary to mortgage the lines for years to
come, it would pay in the long run? He was sick of old, conservative,
cautious methods.
After the lapse of a few weeks Addison, still acting for Cowperwood,
had a second and private conference with Kaffrath. He said, after
exacting a promise of secrecy for the present, that since their
previous conversation he had become aware of new developments.
In the interval he had been visited by several men of long connection
with street-railways in other localities. They had been visiting
various cities, looking for a convenient outlet for their capital,
and had finally picked on Chicago. They had looked over the various
lines here, and had decided that the North Chicago City Railway
was as good a field as any. He then elaborated with exceeding
care the idea which Cowperwood had outlined to him. Kaffrath,
dubious at first, was finally won over. He had too long chafed
under the dusty, poky attitude of the old regime. He did not
know who these new men were, but this scheme was in line with
his own ideas. It would require, as Addison pointed out, the
expenditure of several millions of dollars, and he did not see
how the money could be raised without outside assistance, unless
the lines were heavily mortgaged. If these new men were willing
to pay a high rate for fifty-one per cent. of this stock for
ninety-nine years and would guarantee a satisfactory rate of
interest on all the stock as it stood, besides inaugurating a
forward policy, why not let them? It would be just as good as
mortgaging the soul out of the old property, and the management
was of no value, anyhow. Kaffrath could not see how fortunes
were to be made for these new investors out of subsidiary
construction and equipment companies, in which Cowperwood would
be interested, how by issuing watered stock on the old and new
lines the latter need scarcely lay down a dollar once he had the
necessary opening capital (the "talking capital," as he was fond
of calling it) guaranteed. Cowperwood and Addison had by now
agreed, if this went through, to organize the Chicago Trust Company
with millions back of it to manipulate all their deals. Kaffrath
only saw a better return on his stock, possibly a chance to get
in on the "ground plan," as a new phrase expressed it, of the new
company.
"That's what I've been telling these fellows for the past three
years," he finally exclaimed to Addison, flattered by the latter's
personal attention and awed by his great influence; "but they never
have been willing to listen to me. The way this North Side system
has been managed is a crime. Why, a child could do better than
we have done. They've saved on track and rolling-stock, and lost
on population. People are what we want up there, and there is
only one way that I know of to get them, and that is to give them
decent car service. I'll tell you frankly we've never done it."
Not long after this Cowperwood had a short talk with Kaffrath, in
which he promised the latter not only six hundred dollars a share
for all the stock he possessed or would part with on lease, but a
bonus of new company stock for his influence. Kaffrath returned
to the North Side jubilant for himself and for his company. He
decided after due thought that a roundabout way would best serve
Cowperwood's ends, a line of subtle suggestion from some seemingly
disinterested party. Consequently he caused William Johnson, the
directing engineer, to approach Albert Thorsen, one of the most
vulnerable of the directors, declaring he had heard privately that
Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, three other
directors and the heaviest owners, had been offered a very remarkable
price for their stock, and that they were going to sell, leaving
the others out in the cold.
Thorsen was beside himself with grief. "When did you hear that?"
he asked.
Johnson told him, but for the time being kept the source of his
information secret. Thorsen at once hurried to his friend, Solon
Kaempfaert, who in turn went to Kaffrath for information.
"I have heard something to that effect," was Kaffrath's only
comment, "but really I do not know."
Thereupon Thorsen and Kaempfaert imagined that Kaffrath was in the
conspiracy to sell out and leave them with no particularly valuable
pickings. It was very sad.
Meanwhile, Cowperwood, on the advice of Kaffrath, was approaching
Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes direct--talking
with them as if they were the only three he desired to deal with.
A little later Thorsen and Kaempfaert were visited in the same
spirit, and agreed in secret fear to sell out, or rather lease at
the very advantageous terms Cowperwood offered, providing he could
get the others to do likewise. This gave the latter a strong
backing of sentiment on the board. Finally Isaac White stated at
one of the meetings that he had been approached with an interesting
proposition, which he then and there outlined. He was not sure
what to think, he said, but the board might like to consider it.
At once Thorsen and Kaempfaert were convinced that all Johnson had
suggested was true. It was decided to have Cowperwood come and
explain to the full board just what his plan was, and this he did
in a long, bland, smiling talk. It was made plain that the road
would have to be put in shape in the near future, and that this
proposed plan relieved all of them of work, worry, and care.
Moreover, they were guaranteed more interest at once than they had
expected to earn in the next twenty or thirty years. Thereupon
it was agreed that Cowperwood and his plan should be given a trial.
Seeing that if he did not succeed in paying the proposed interest
promptly the property once more became theirs, so they thought,
and that he assumed all obligations--taxes, water rents, old claims,
a few pensions--it appeared in the light of a rather idyllic scheme.
"Well, boys, I think this is a pretty good day's work myself,"
observed Anthony Ewer, laying a friendly hand on the shoulder of
Mr. Albert Thorsen. "I'm sure we can all unite in wishing Mr.
Cowperwood luck with his adventure." Mr. Ewer's seven hundred and
fifteen shares, worth seventy-one thousand five hundred dollars,
having risen to a valuation of four hundred and twenty-nine thousand
dollars, he was naturally jubilant.
"You're right," replied Thorsen, who was parting with four hundred
and eighty shares out of a total of seven hundred and ninety, and
seeing them all bounce in value from two hundred to six hundred
dollars. "He's an interesting man. I hope he succeeds."
Cowperwood, waking the next morning in Aileen's room--he had been
out late the night before with McKenty, Addison, Videra, and
others--turned and, patting her neck where she was dozing, said:
"Well, pet, yesterday afternoon I wound up that North Chicago
Street Railway deal. I'm president of the new North Side company
just as soon as I get my board of directors organized. We're going
to be of some real consequence in this village, after all, in a
year or two."
He was hoping that this fact, among other things, would end in
mollifying Aileen toward him. She had been so gloomy, remote,
weary these many days--ever since the terrific assault on Rita.
"Yes?" she replied, with a half-hearted smile, rubbing her waking
eyes. She was clad in a foamy nightgown of white and pink. "That's
nice, isn't it?"
Cowperwood brought himself up on one elbow and looked at her,
smoothing her round, bare arms, which he always admired. The
luminous richness of her hair had never lost its charm completely.
"That means that I can do the same thing with the Chicago West
Division Company in a year or so," he went on. "But there's going
to be a lot of talk about this, I'm afraid, and I don't want that
just now. It will work out all right. I can see Schryhart and
Merrill and some of these other people taking notice pretty soon.
They've missed out on two of the biggest things Chicago ever had
--gas and railways."
"Oh yes, Frank, I'm glad for you," commented Aileen, rather drearily,
who, in spite of her sorrow over his defection, was still glad
that he was going on and forward. "You'll always do all right."
"I wish you wouldn't feel so badly, Aileen," he said, with a kind
of affectional protest. "Aren't you going to try and be happy
with me? This is as much for you as for me. You will be able to
pay up old scores even better than I will."
He smiled winningly.
"Yes," she replied, reproachfully but tenderly at that, a little
sorrowfully, "a lot of good money does me. It was your love I
wanted."
"But you have that," he insisted. "I've told you that over and
over. I never ceased to care for you really. You know I didn't."
"Yes, I know," she replied, even as he gathered her close in his
arms. "I know how you care." But that did not prevent her from
responding to him warmly, for back of all her fuming protest was
heartache, the wish to have his love intact, to restore that
pristine affection which she had once assumed would endure forever. _
Read next: chapter XXIII - The Power of the Press
Read previous: chapter XXI - A Matter of Tunnels
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